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MINSK, 2 June (BelTA) – Ensuring economic security is among Belarus’ top-priority tasks, Belarus Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said at the Minsk Dialogue international conference “Economic Security in a Globalized World” on 2 June, BelTA has learned.

“Despite gradual transition to the multilateral world order and the movement towards the real balance between the key actors in the international arena, the establishment of an optimal level of global stability still remains a matter of a distant perspective. The aim of some leading countries to use methods of force, economic and resource advantages to promote their interests, dictate their models of development also create additional sources of tension. Ensuring economic security is of major significance in such a complicated geopolitical situation,” the minister said.

He stressed that sound economy is not just a guarantee of the nation’s prosperity but also a basis for the state’s viability and sustainability, its true independence.

Vladimir Makei named export diversification and gradual reduction of its dependence on a small set of traditional markets as an important aspect of efforts to secure economic security. The social and economic development program through 2020 envisages gradual diversification of foreign trade with equal distribution of exports among the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union, the EU and the countries of the “distant arc”. “Unfortunately, the current state of our foreign trade cannot be named proportional and comfortable for our state,” he said.

The minister also stressed that regional trading relations, and issues of liberalization and access to markets, are acquiring greater significance today. Belarus does not stand aside from these processes. The country is working hard in this direction within the Eurasian Economic Union. “The total volume of the markets the EAEU is in talks with exceed three billion people. This is something worth fighting for,” the Belarusian foreign minister said.

According to Vladimir Makei, being guided by the world’s leaders Belarus has been gradually seeking ways for sustainable economic development. IT is viewed as one of the most promising areas. Belarus is already among the biggest suppliers of software development services.

With a high level of the openness of its economy and orientation on foreign markets, Belarus should be most interested in a mechanism of technological ideology that makes the basis of the so-called industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution. “In order to welcome industry 4.0, Belarus needs radical changes to turn to manufacturing digital technologies. This is the case when we will have to revolutionize in order to to go shoulder to shoulder with the world’s leading countries,” the minister said.